Anyone have any luck flying this default? I cant seem to get it to do good approaches manually. I can do the Boeing no problem but this A321 is a beast :-)It porpoises all over the place and hard to maintain a good GS. I tried the IFDG for fsx and same thing. Something in FSX that makes the A321 so bad? The IFDG aliases to the default panel which is fine but then there is no VC...so many questions so little time :-hahAlso in a related matter anyone else notice that the the autopilot does not always maintain its settings for VSI? I see this in the 737 as well. When you activate alt hold the VSI shows 1800fpm which is fine but it does not climb or descend at that rate. I have to manually play with the VSI wheel to get that rate.ThanksBill

>Anyone have any luck flying this default? I cant seem to get>it to do good approaches manually. I can do the Boeing no>problem but this A321 is a beast :-)>If you can fly the A321, you can fly anything in FSX. It is the most difficult (imo) to fly. You have to practice. I have done about 10-15 takeoffs and landings in the A321 at 100% realism.For me the most difficult thing was mastering the "dip" on short final that the fly-by-wire controls do. I think the "dip" is a means to get the pilot to flare, although in an Airbus the flare isn't supposed to be very pronounced. Learning that the fly by wire (FBW) *will* react strangely if you're not used to it is the key.That's why it porpoises and has trouble on the GS. I have found that small control inputs are best. If you overcontrol it, the A321 is not nearly as forgiving as a Boeing. Large control inputs cause the FBW to take over and act strangely. You just have to practice.>>Also in a related matter anyone else notice that the the>autopilot does not always maintain its settings for VSI? I see>this in the 737 as well. When you activate alt hold the VSI>shows 1800fpm which is fine but it does not climb or descend>at that rate. I have to manually play with the VSI wheel to>get that rate.>Yes Bill I have noticed this. And it's in many different aircraft, too. I'm not sure if its a bug or a feature. A person has to manually reset the vertical speed on the autopilot to get it to maintain the rate it was set to before.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2530 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

RhettThanks for the reply. At least I am not going nuts. Or maybe I am. :-)I just did another test flight, and I noticed that on final after I disengage the auto pilot, I cannot move or adjust the trim wheel. This is a serious problem as this means I cannot make small pitch adjustments. Is this normal or does it have something to do with the fly by wire you mention, and if so whats the correct procedure? I checked the tutorial and cannot find anything specific about the trimThanks again.Bill

Guys,Pitch is automatically adjusted by the FBW system. You simply move the stick to hold your flighpath, let go and the FBW will hold the same pitch automatically.If you are trying to manually trim, you will be confusing the #### out of it.As with all the default AC, its not upto much. I look forward to the PMDG implementation of FBW. (If the FPS are ok!!!)

I will give that a tryThanksBill

Just to clarify, my post should have read:Pitch TRIM.........

Ok I did a manual landing on an ILS approach and it worked ok. I would have to get a lot more practice to do it in IMC. Takes getting used to, but I see where very little input into elevator is necessary and it gets trimmed out quickly. I was even able to hold a perfect 5000ft without autopilot. Just set pitch and throttle and it did the rest. My problem is my CH Yoke has never been smooth and it tends to get sticky which can cause problems. Thats another matter.My jet flying in FS has been almost all Boeing so this is new to me. Thanks again for the guidanceBill

>Rhett>>Thanks for the reply. At least I am not going nuts. Or maybe I>am. :-)>>I just did another test flight, and I noticed that on final>after I disengage the auto pilot, I cannot move or adjust the>trim wheel. This is a serious problem as this means I cannot>make small pitch adjustments. Is this normal or does it have>something to do with the fly by wire you mention, and if so>whats the correct procedure? I checked the tutorial and cannot>find anything specific about the trim>>Thanks again.>>BillMaybe I do not do it right, but I do not mess with the trim wheel after I shut off the autopilot on the A321. I simply fly the plane with the stick and I am very careful about the inputs I make with the A321, or else the FBW will start going on me.I have found, that I need to do a little more than simply use throttle to control sink rate on the A321. I know what the rule is--throttle to control vertical speed, pitch to control airspeed--and that generally is still true on the A321--but I have found that sometimes a bump on the stick is helpful on final approach, if I'm low or high.It's tricky on the A321, mastering the throttle needed for a proper descent rate. Took me about a dozen landings to get it right.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2530 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

I can't get it to turn with the autopilot on, even when I turn the heading hold switch off. The only way I can get it to turn manually is no autopilot at all. Is this the norm for the airbus.Also CTRL+V ( Wing Leveler) and CTRL+D ( Yaw damper) do not help. Bob

Rhett,I know what you mean. From experience I know 500-700fpm will get me down on most GS. So all I did was pitch forward to get that rate and then set throttle to approach speed and it worked. So from that point on all I do is make sure my IAS is maintained and fly it down. I did have to flare a bit more on touch down...carefully as well...But as you say sometimes a bump is necessary but you have to be real gentle.The problem with the panel supplied by FS is that I cannot seem to find where the fpm rate is displayed so I can check it. I have to guess from the glass hsi.. I will have to take another look. Bill

>I can't get it to turn with the autopilot on, even when I>turn the heading hold switch off. The only way I can get it to>turn manually is no autopilot at all. Is this the norm for the>airbus.I had this "problem" before. I was used to do turns while the AP holds the altitude with the 737. But then someone wrote that the Airbus AP is supposed to work this way.That person said activating the AP without activating heading and altitude knobs means "hold current altitude and heading". Thus, when you engage AP in the Airbus, the AP takes over, no matter which settings you choose. So if you want to fly yourself, don't use the AP. That's the answer I got when asking the same thing.

>I can't get it to turn with the autopilot on, even when I>turn the heading hold switch off. The only way I can get it to>turn manually is no autopilot at all. Is this the norm for the>airbus.Also CTRL+V ( Wing Leveler) and CTRL+D ( Yaw damper) do>not help.> BobI believe all planes are like that. Once the autopilot is on you cannot hand fly it. Like FS9 there is probably an entry you can put in your aircraft.cfg file that will allow you to fly with the autopilot to maintain altitude while you manually handle turns. It was a line like this : default_bank_mode=0 under the autopilot section. I have not tried it in FSX yet but there is probably a similar solution.Bill

>I have found, that I need to do a little more than simply use>throttle to control sink rate on the A321. I know what the>rule is--throttle to control vertical speed, pitch to control>airspeed--and that generally is still true on the A321--but I>have found that sometimes a bump on the stick is helpful on>final approach, if I'm low or high.>You would not want to believe that "rule" is written in stone. If you have airspeed under control, then by all means use a combination of the stick and throttle to get the desired results.If throttle is too low, and you don't have sufficient airspeed to maintain a controlled sink rate, then yes, pulling the stick back would only increase the sink rate. You just have to always be aware of airspeeds. I always use shiftZ for quicker glances than trying to focus on a panel airspeed indicator.L.Adamson

Hi,I skimmed the replies you already had, and it looks like people have covered it - but I must admit the Airbus is very different to fly than the 737.I know the difference in systems in real life, Boeing (even on their FBW) aircraft are still very stick and rudder - that is pilot centered, whereas Airbus takes the approach of taking the pilot out of the equation a little more, that is to try to reduce the number of aircraft incidents due to pilot error, since unlike the old days, engine failures (which are a factor of 60-80 times less likely since the 1960's) and mechanical failures are far less too, such that the pilot was considered the single most likely point of failure.So it's a different regimine with Airbus (my guess is Boeing will follow one day). Personally I still prefer Boeing planes (always been an avid Boeing fan), but thought I'd have a go flying the A321. Well I was fine on climb out, did my normal procedures to level out, retract flaps, then into main climb (now on autopilot) and flew to my destination - but on approach, I found the same problem as you, and ended up going around --- then I realized, WOW! They actually implemented the way the Airbus FBW works to a point in MSFS - cool!!!! So second time I was able to land with this in mind.As people have said, trying to trim it in the normal fashion won't work, when you move the stick it will go to a certain bank angle or pitch angle - once you get used to it, it's not too bad, and it's a fairly good implementation. In a real FBW airbus, if you get into trouble and just let go of the side-stick controller the plane even has a survival mode, and will automatically get itself out of a bad situation, and get you back to level flight!!!! Pretty cool.Now I love the A321 and the B737 - I fly them both regularly, both are really good for default aircraft, a few quirks aside!Anyway - those are my experiences and insights :)Happy flying!

> You just have to always be aware of airspeeds. That, to me, seems critical no matter what I am flying. If I can get my airspeed right, I should be ok, and in the ballpark with sink rate. If I had to quantify it, when I am flying big iron on approach I focus 65% on airspeed, 20% on VSI, and 15% on altitude I guess.>I always use shiftZ for quicker>glances than trying to focus on a panel airspeed indicator.>heh. I am trying to wean myself off from relying on SHIFT-Z airspeed indicator. I would rather use the panel airpseed gauge but sometimes in critical IFR's with bad wx I resort to using the red kts. It's so...easy.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2530 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian